IT WOULD BE 'A FIRE SALE': Reporter says Trump will not sell his businesses before taking office

President-elect Donald Trump will not liquidate his massive business empire before he moves into the White House, a Wall Street Journal reporter said in a CNN interview on Thursday night.

Monica Langley cited an unnamed senior official in the Trump Organisation who said the Trump family views conflict-of-interest issues surrounding the president-elect as a no-win situation.

Any sale of Trump’s assets could potentially be harmful to the company’s bottom line, or could expose Trump to fresh accusations of illicit influence.

Citing sources who have knowledge of the Trump family’s thinking, Langley described their concerns: “How can we put these hundreds of millions of dollars per property on the market? It’d be a fire sale, we’d lose tons of money.”

Langley added: “Now they’re thinking these assets could bring lots of money. Foreign entities, sovereign wealth funds would want to buy and pay lots of money to try to curry favour with the Trump administration.”

Langley cited one senior official in the Trump Organisation who said “we can’t win at this point if we tried to liquidate.”

The president-elect abruptly postponed a news conference on these matters this week, and said a future announcement had not been scheduled, but would happen before Inauguration Day on January 20.